System sometimes freezes during boot.

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. In order to determine if this issue is plymouth related, please boot your computer with plymouth disabled and then shutdown to see if you can reproduce the issue. To disable plymouth for a single boot, follow these steps:

1. Press Esc during Grub boot delay to access the boot menu.
2. Select your actual Ubuntu boot line and press "e" to edit it.
3. Select the "linux" line and at the end of the line, remove "splash" and "quiet".
5. Type "ctrl + x" to boot the custom boot line.

In addition you'd like to assign a package to your report to ensure that it gets looked at by the proper developers. You can learn more about finding the correct package at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage For this report it may be 'plymouth', 'xorg' or 'linux'. Good luck on getting it fixed!

Hi,

I'm come from the Forum-Thread above and have the same problem (Kubuntu 10.4, KDE 4.5, NvidiaBinaryDriver). The only way i can log in is with the recovery mode (as root), and "startx". The method with the disabled plymouth works for me, thanks! How can i disable it for ever?

Pietro

Patrick,
You can remove "splash" and "quiet" from your grub menu entry.
1) Edit /etc/default/grub as root*. You should see a line that looks like: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash". Comment this line out and save.
2) Run: sudo update-grub
* There are many ways to edit a file as root. I prefer Alt+F2, type kdesudo kate, open desired file.

Unfortunately, this disables the splash for all linux entries.

You could alternatively, create a custom entry to boot from, which has no splash:
1) Create a new file, 09_kubuntu:
2) Copy-and-paste from 40_custom (or simply rename 40_custom to 09_desiredfilename):
#!/bin/sh
exec tail -n +3 $0
3) Open /boot/grub/grub.cfg. Find your menu entry that you prefer to boot from with no splash.
4) Copy this menu item to your new 09_kubuntu
5) Run: sudo update-grub

Example:
#!/bin/sh
echo 'Adding splashless Kubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-24-generic' >&2
exec tail -n +3 $0
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
#if [ "x${GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR}" = "x" ] ; then
# OS=GNU/Linux
#else
# OS="${GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR}"
# CLASS="--class $(echo ${GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR} | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]' | cut -d' ' -f1) ${CLASS}"
#fi
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-24-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
 recordfail
 insmod ext2
 set root='(hd0,2)'
 search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 4e3dce2d-f553-4a93-b01e-88746145880b
 linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic root=UUID=4e3dce2d-f553-4a93-b01e-88746145880b ro
 initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-24-generic
}

More on grub2: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2

Jason

Thanks for the detailed description! Im not new to linux, but i didn't know exactly how grub2 organize its files, so.. thanks. BTW: I prefere "strg+alt+f1, login, sudo vi file" for editing system files. I'm away for some weeks, but if i can help with some information to find the bug...

I deactivated plymouth by removing 'splash' option within Grub and now I can boot my machine without problems. So it seems to be indeed a plymouth problem.

1. Press Esc during Grub boot delay to access the boot menu.
2. Select your actual Ubuntu boot line and press "e" to edit it.
3. Select the "linux" line and at the end of the line, remove "splash" and "quiet".
5. Type "ctrl + x" to boot the custom boot line.

I followed these instructions but had to remove:" splash quiet splash "
I tried removing different combinations of it but it didn't work.
Whenever I boot it gets stuck either on the splash screen (dots light up and down but no harddisk activity and doesnt' boot). Or if I took out the splash quiet splash parameters I get a stream of text and it stops at something like "reading SATA link not established".
This may be a bit different to the above people, but the symptoms seem the same and I get it every time - i can't boot into it.
I'm running 10.04 Ubuntu and have installed kde (so splash screen says kubuntu but i still use gnome for now). I'm also running this on a Samsung R580-JS02AU and have run lucid on it successfully since last week (after updating).

Two guys confirmed, that disabling plymouth solved the problem.

Since posting this bug info, I have reinstalled my system and now it works OK for me. This problem is really hard (impossible?) to reproduce, it just sometimes happen. As I wrote, indeed this is probably Plymouth issue, as on forum thread several people confirmed that deactivating it solved the problem.

Can anyone form the bug tracking team suggest what can be done further?

Cheers,
Jacek

I'm affected as well. Disabling splash helps. -> confirm
Cheers

After upgrading to 10.10 the issue reappeared. Disabling plymouth helps.

I'll try enable plymouth again and get logs from boot by setting BOOTLOGD_ENABLE in /etc/default/bootlogd file to 'yes'. Maybe analysis of these logs will be helpful.

If anyone has more ideas please share.

I'm in with Maverick Kubuntu, latest fglrx drivers and x.org from x-swat repository and Plymouth working via framebuffer. Looks like X server just fails to start. (from system logs there's one line about it with no reason) Bug appears just in one of 3-5 boots. Pressing on power button and the system is turning off correctly (at least Plymouth indicates halt process). Going to turn plymouth off and check if this help.

I also fixed the problem with removing "quiet splash".

Here are some relevant log entries (daemon.log) in several failed boot attempts:

Feb 24 11:51:23 dragon init: plymouth-stop pre-start process (2448) terminated with status 1
Feb 24 11:51:25 dragon init: ssh main process (842) terminated with status 255
Feb 24 11:51:30 dragon kdm[861]: X server startup timeout, terminating
Feb 24 11:51:30 dragon kdm[861]: X server died during startup
Feb 24 11:51:30 dragon kdm[861]: Failed to start X server. Starting failsafe X server.
...
Feb 24 11:52:41 dragon init: plymouth main process (288) killed by SEGV signal
Feb 24 11:52:41 dragon init: apport pre-start process (895) terminated with status 1
...
Feb 24 11:52:49 dragon init: plymouth-stop pre-start process (2408) terminated with status 1
Feb 24 11:52:51 dragon init: ssh main process (775) terminated with status 255
Feb 24 11:52:56 dragon kdm[805]: X server startup timeout, terminating
Feb 24 11:52:56 dragon kdm[805]: X server died during startup
Feb 24 11:52:56 dragon kdm[805]: Failed to start X server. Starting failsafe X server.

The Xorg.?.log contains nothing interest. Xorg.failsafe.log contains something interesting:
X.Org X Server 1.7.6
Release Date: 2010-03-17
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.24-25-server i686 Ubuntu
Current Operating System: Linux dragon.ttdev 2.6.32-28-generic #55-Ubuntu SMP Mon Jan 10 21:21:01 UTC 2011 i686
Kernel command line: root=UUID=f5c42ce3-68c4-42ff-ab82-4cd38b4008d0 ro quiet splash
Build Date: 10 December 2010 05:53:04PM
xorg-server 2:1.7.6-2ubuntu7.5 (For technical support please see http://www.ubuntu.com/support)
Current version of pixman: 0.16.4
        Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
        to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
        (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
        (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(++) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.failsafe.log", Time: Thu Feb 24 11:52:56 2011
(++) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf.failsafe"
(==) Using config directory: "/usr/lib/X11/xorg.conf.d"
(==) No Layout section. Using the first Screen section.
(**) |-->Screen "Default Screen" (0)
(**) | |-->Monitor "Configured Monitor"
(**) | |-->Device "Configured Video Device"
(==) Automatically adding devices
(==) Automatically enabling devices
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic" does not exist.
        Entry deleted from font path.
(==) FontPath set to:
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/misc,
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled,
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled,
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1,
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi,
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi,
        /var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType,
        built-ins
(==) ModulePath set to "/usr/lib/xorg/extra-modules,/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
(II) The server relies on udev to provide the list of input devices.
        If no devices become available, reconfigure udev or disable AutoAddDevices.
(II) Loader magic: 0x81f0e80
(II) Module ABI versions:
        X.Org ANSI C Emulation: 0.4
        X.Org Video Driver: 6.0
        X.Org XI...

This bug is probably a duplicate of https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg-server/+bug/441653

I'm using Ubuntu Lucid Lynx Netbook Edition on two machines seemingly effected by this bug.

I've was experiencing exact symptom described in this bug report for a long time on my ASUS Eeetop 1602, couldn't find anyone else reporting the problem at the time and assumed it was my weird hardware. Was happening almost every boot, I found tapping a few keys on the keyboard during the boot splash would make get it to GDM always, though since this is a touch screen unit, I rarely want to have the keyboard connected, so that kind of sucked. It started happening months back, where as originally I had no problem with Lucid on this machine.

There are no clues in any log files as to what's causing the problem that I could find. Eventually I tried disabling plymouth and it's never happened since.

Only reason I'm here now is because the same symptom just started happening to my ASUS Eeepc 1005P. I don't know why, but the relative 'age' of this machine is about the same now as when it started happening to my Eeetop. Ie. I've owned this unit for about the same length of time as I had owned the Eeetop when this problem started to occur on that. Both machines I bought brand new and installed Ubuntu NBE as soon as they were out of the box.

I hope this comment adds some credibility to this mysterious issue and maybe gives some clues as to why it's happening. I can reenable plymouth and put some logs here if you think it'll help, but as I said I personally could find no clue as to the problem by looking at the logs myself. For now I'm just disabling plymouth as a workaround.

Setting to confirmed since so many people are affected by this.
Can you guys look the following wiki page and report back results
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Plymouth#Debugging

OK, I'll re-enable plymouth and we'll see if I can find what's wrong. I'll report on my findings in one or two weeks time.

I just had this happen to me on another machine I just helped someone upgrade from 9.04 to 10.04. After the upgrade the first two boots this happened, system was totally unresponsive to anything other than Ctrl+Alt+Delete.